Rooney’s match-winning goal breaks Fellaini’s curse on United

Manchester United fans feared the worst when they saw Marouane Fellaini was starting in central midfield against Liverpool. His lack of suitability for the role is clear to see but the match statistics made it crystal.

There have been seven defeats in all competitions so far this season, all of which featured Fellaini. However, the team has an unbeaten record in games not featuring Fellaini. In the league, that translated to 2.4 points per game without him but just 0.9 points per game with him.

Therefore, it is almost miraculous that United managed to earn a victory at Anfield with Fellaini in the team - especially when you consider how the team played with him being so erratic in midfield.

Despite his physical characteristics, Fellaini isn’t an imposing figure in the centre of the pitch. His lack of mobility and positional awareness means he is rarely in the right place to block the opposition’s passing lanes and this often results in him bounding around conceding fouls.

He fares no better when in possession of the ball either. Moves often break down when the ball reaches his feet and his passing performance in Liverpool’s half was particularly poor on Sunday.

Opta statistics show his pass completion rate of 45.5% in the opposition half was the worst of all the players and that isn’t just outfield players, remarkably it was even lower than David De Gea.

It is no wonder the team looked so disjointed against Jurgen Klopp’s men and Louis Van Gaal should be very thankful that Wayne Rooney has begun to find form in front of goal - he has now scored in four successive games for the first time since March 2012.

He showed great technique to keep his powerful strike low and hard enough to beat Simon Mignolet. This form is in stark contrast to the first half of the season, where he managed to go 878 minutes without a goal.

The embarrassing moment where he couldn’t run with the ball past Kolo Toure showed that this certainly isn’t Rooney back to his best but it is refreshing to see his finishing ability of old return.